Child's Play
by GlitterTrails
Summary: The neighborhood game of war changes for 8 year old Tino when 10 year old Berwald rescues him from Mathias's tree fort. Human names used.
1. Game Change

"Faster slave! Build that furniture robot faster!"

Tino sighed as he scrubbed the side of the old dilapidated chair with a sheet of sandpaper "Ya know, this game isn't a very fun one. I'm not even really sure this will turn into a robot if I keep doing this-"

"FASTER!" Mathias yelled with an exuberant grin as he twirled across the treehouse floor, waving a plastic sword in the air "I am the king! You will do as I say or I will have your head!"

Tino sighed again and continued scrubbing as Mathias danced around the room. Life is hard when you're a delicate flower of an eight year old with only scary roughhousing ten year olds to play with.

_They always do this…_ Tino lamented silently _I always have to be the thing that's the least fun. Why did Eudard have to move away? I miss having a friend who is nice and stuff…_

"Hey," Lukas walked in with little Emil in tow "I found this. It's weird."

"Lemme see! Lemme see!" Mathias ran over excitedly to take a look "It's a…it's a little red fish!"

"Not a real fish though," Lukas pointed out "My bathtub is full of real fishes, and this is not a real one."

"Ha ha! You're a freak Lukas! This fish looks like candy, I'm gonna eat it!"

"Gross. I found it on the ground."

"I'm a king! Kings don't have to worry if it was on the ground-duh!" Mathias grabbed it and stuffed it in his mouth "Mmm! This is super delicious!"

Lukas gave him a sour look "You are really, really gross."

"I want more! Your king wants you to find more tasty red fish that are not real but are TASTY!"

Emil spoke up "In the forest, there were more of them and they led out into the forest in a line-"

"Yah, there was a trail of them leading into the forest-"

"Yah."

"…back into the forest."

Mathias gasped "No way! Come with me and we will follow them and I will eat ALL the fishes. Come with me EVERYBODY-not you Tino. Stay here and work on the robot. FISH CANDY!"

The door slammed shut, leaving Tino alone in the tree house with the sandpaper and the broken chair.

_Maybe I could run away-no they'll catch me again. Stupid smallness!_

Then Tino heard a tapping noise on the back window of the tree fort.

"Hello?" Tino called.

No response. Tino stood up and started walking over to the window

"Mathias? What are ya doing ba-? AIHH!"

Berwald frowned as the boy behind the glass screamed upon seeing him, tripped and then fell out of sight.

_Oops. Guess he doesn't like m' face…_

Despite this, Berwald had not given up on his plans to rescue the younger boy. He walked around to the front of the tree house and was about to come in when Tino came bolting out of the doorway screaming and ran straight into him.

"Wha-AIH!" Tino started to scream again, but the tall, scary-faced boy put a hand over his mouth.

"Shh. If ya scream they might come back. Don't ya want to get out?"

The boy drew his hand back and Tino looked up at him with large, confused eyes.

"Ya...ya came to get me out?"

The boy nodded and held out his hand. "Come with m'."

Without thinking things through Tino took his hand and let his terrifying rescuer pull him out of the tree fort. The tall boy led the way as they ran far out into the meadow, across a stream, through a sunflower field, and then back across the stream.

"Need t' take the long way," the tall boy explained as they ran hand in hand. "So they can't follow our tracks."

"Are ya the one who made a trail of red fish candy into the forest?"

"Yah. Needed a distraction." They came to a wooden fence, probably the back of someone's yard.

"Huh..." Tino pondered as the tall boy fetched a key from his pocket and undid the lock on the gate. "That's a good idea. Ya must be pretty smart."

"Thank ya," the boy replied as he held the door open for Tino. He wandered through the gate, looking around at the yard.

Berwald felt a surge of victory and relief as he locked the gate door behind them. "There," he turned to face Tino "They can't get t' us here."

For the first time the younger boy smiled at him "Really? I'm so happy! Thank ya! So this means I'm not their prisoner anymore, right?"

"Yah," Berwald agreed "Ya don't have to be their prisoner anymore. Now ya can-" the ten year old paused and looked away as he felt the blood rising to his face.

"-now ya can...be m' wife..."

**Valued Readers: This story is an exercise in character voice for me. I'm trying to make the characters act like themselves while also having them act like actual kids. Please tell me how I'm doing! I want to write the best I can for you guys. : )**

**Love all around!**


	2. An Important Discussion

"...m' wife..."

Tino jumped back "Wha-WHAT?! Don't be silly! I...I'm not your wife!"

The tall boy looked at him with a puzzled expression "Why not?"

"I-I!" Tino's heart sped up with fright as he started backing away "I'm not your wife! I didn't say I was so I'm not your wife!"

"Hmm..." the tall boy looked at the ground and scratched his head "So...ya could say ya were and then ya could be?"

"I don't want to be! This is too silly! I can't play like this, take me back to be a prisoner again!" Tino started to run towards the back gate.

The tall boy caught him by the hand and pulled him back "Tino, wait!"

Tino froze and turned around to face him. "How do ya know my name?"

"Ya came over one week with your mom to take care of m' family's puppy, remember?"

Tino's eyes widened with realization "YOU'RE my next door neighbor?"

The boy nodded and let go of his hand.

_That's right...the family said they had a boy who lived in the room upstairs. They said he had been hurt very badly in a car accident and wouldn't be able to come outside for a long time_. Tino noticed the bandages on the side of the boy's face.

"What's your name?"

"Berwald."

"Berwald? I've never seen ya before. I can't be your wife if I haven't even _seen_ ya before."

"But now ya see me."

"Yah, but I don't even _know _anything about ya! I don't even know ANYTHING-"

"..."

"...about ya."

"I know about ya. Puppy told me ya were nice."

"Yah...but _I_ don't know anything about ya. How am I supposed-…I can't marry-…look..." Tino felt himself turn red as he looked at his feet "I just don't know ya...okay?"

Berwald nodded and thoughtfully considered the situation. What could he tell Tino about himself that would make Tino want to be his wife?

"'m good at snacks," Berwald informed him.

Tino's head shot up. "What kind of snacks?"

"Lots of kinds. Ya want me t' make ya a snack?"

"Okay!" Tino's face brightened as he followed Berwald into the house.

Berwald was pretty pleased as well. His plan had been really, really good. Except the last part where Tino married him, that part was more tricky than he thought it would be.

That was okay, because he had a new plan for that. He called it "The Snack Plan". Mapped out in his ten-year old brain, the plan looked something like this.

_Step 1: Make the best snack __ever__._

_Step 2: Have Tino be m' wife._

_Step 3: Play the ice hockey video game together_

_Step 4: I don't know yet._

Meanwhile, Mathias, Lukas and Emil had reached the end of the trail of red candy fish.

"You really ate them all...Matt, you are the grossest-"

"Hey, look there!" Mathias shouted out suddenly.

Before them, in the middle of a nearby clearing in the forest, was a cardboard box with the words "Do not open" written on with magic marker.

"Okay boys! I think we should open it!" Mathias concluded instantaneously.

"But it says 'don't open'-" Emil protested.

"Duh! That's because whoever left it here left something awesome inside and doesn't want us to take it!"

"I think it's a trick," Lukas huffed "They knew if they put 'do not open' on it that it would just make you want to open it even badder."

"Quiet you two! You're just frightened babies. Let your super fearless king deal with this," Mathias swaggered over confidently to the box, lifting up the lid up ever so slightly "You'll thank me when you see it's-"

"BAH HA HA HA HA HA!" Without warning, a crazy-looking kid with a yellow bird on his head and a t-shirt with the words "My name is AWESOME" on the front jumped out of the box and started firing a storm of aerosoft bullets at the three of them.

"Oh naughty-potty! RUN!" Mathias wailed as he and his companions fled the area as fast as they could with Gilbert running close behind them, laughing insanely as he filled the air with small plastic pellets.


	3. Best Ever

"This is the best snack EVER!" Tino exclaimed as he took another bite of the nectarine-topped ice cream sundae.

_Step 1 complete._

"Thank ya for this yummy snack Berwald! I LOVE yummy snacks," Tino continued eating with a huge, silly smile on his face.

"Yer welcome."

"This is so much better than being bossed around by Mathias in a tree fort. I'm having way more fun with ya than I did with them!"

"…Really?"

"Yah!"

"So…" Berwald's face filled with strawberry blush lines "…does that mean ya want to be m' wife now?"

"Hmm…" Tino stopped and set his spoon down a moment to think about it. "I don't know. I mean, it's kind of weird yah? I mean…I'm only eight."

"'m only ten."

"That's two more than eight."

"Yah."

"Ya know I'm a boy, right?"

"Yah, I know."

"If I was your wife does that mean ya would be my husband?"

Berwald nodded.

Tino scratched his head as he contemplated the situation. "Hmm…I mean, I guess I can be your wife, but-" he scrunched his face up "Ya won't make me do chores and boring stuff like the wives on TV, will ya?"

Berwald shook his head. "No. Ya don't have t' do that. Ya just have t' stay with me and 'll make ya snacks."

"Mmm…" Tino's face brightened "Okay! That sounds good. You're my husband now!" He beamed and picked his spoon back up "My husband makes the best snacks!"

Berwald's heart exploded with fantastic fireworks of joy. _Step 2 complete. 'm so happy!_ Then he flinched and touched the side of his face. Drat! The bandages...he'd forgotten what the doctor told him about not smiling.

He'd have to ask the doctor next time what he was supposed to do when Tino was around, because when he looked at Tino smiling was all Berwald wanted to do!


	4. Super Bad Torture Time

**Thanks for the favs, follows, views and reviews! I appreciate the love and support. Check me on the voices in this chapter, especially Mathias. Because while I understand that Mathias is cheerful and obnoxious, I don't really know the way he puts sentences together very well. Hopefully despite these difficulties the chapter will still amuse you guys.**

**Love all around!**

Once Gilbert ran out of aerosoft bullets, Mathias, Lukas and Emil realized that they had the advantage in numbers and decided to drag him back to the tree fort as their prisoner.

"Where is Tino?" Lukas asked when they returned to an empty treefort.

"Who cares? We can find him later. Now it's time for SUPER BAD TORTURE TIME! We're gonna torture this guy so bad that he'll have to tell us EVERYTHING!"

"Truck it losers! I'm too awesome for your lame torture to work!" Gilbert laughed as they stuffed him into the old broken chair.

"Oh yeah?" Mathias grinned "Well I'm gonna make a super-gross face at you-BLEGH!" he rolled his eyes back, lodged his fingers in his nose and stuck his tongue out.

Gilbert smirked "Yeah right. You call that torture? Maybe for a three year old or for that rich wussy-pants Roderich, but not awesome me! You guys are such losers."

Mathias laughed back at him. "Oh yeah? Well I was just gettin' warmed up. I'm gonna sing a song that's REALLY annoying and will make you so annoyed that you'll HATE it!"

"BAH HA HA! Your stupid song won't work against my awesomeness! Go for it loser! I dare you."

"Alright, you asked for it!" Mathias started skipping around Gilbert and singing.

_"This is the song that never ends...it just goes on and on my friends...Some people started singing it not knowing what it was. And they'll continue singing it forever just because this is the song that never ends...it just goes on and on my friends-"_

"WAIT!" Gilbert cried out suddenly.

"Ha ha ha!" Mathias stopped skipping "Had enough yet?"

"No, that's an awesome song! Start back at the beginning so I can sing it with you."

"Okay!"

Mathias and Gilbert started to sing together _"This is the song that never ends...It just goes on and on my friends...Some people started singing it not knowing what it was..."_

"Big Brother!" Emil whined as he tugged on Lukas's sleeve. "Big Brother, make them stop! Please Big Brother!"

Lukas sighed. _Mathias is really annoying. He's so dumb about EVERYTHING! If we want to find out stuff we have to __torture__ the prisoner, not have fun and sing with him._

"Hey," Lukas tapped Mathias on the shoulder "I have an idea."

Mathias stopped singing and Lukas leaned over and whispered something in his ear.

Mathias's eyes lit up "Good job Lukas! For a freak you have good ideas sometimes. Alright Gilbert-prisoner-guy, stop singing!"

_"...and they'll continue singing it forever_-wait, why? That song is so awesome! It's the most awesome annoying song I've ever heard!"

"I'm gonna sing something else now!" Mathias started skipping circles around Gilbert again "Gilbert and Elizabeta sittin' in a tree – K-I-S-S-I-N-"

Gilbert's eyes went wide with horror "No-no way!"

"First comes LOVE!"

"Oh no."

"Then comes MARRIAGE!"

"No!"

"Then comes-"

"WAIT STOP! STOP! I'LL PROMISE I'LL SAY IT IF YOU JUST STOP!"

Mathias stopped and stared down at him with a sinister grin on his ten year old face. "I'm WAIT-ing!"

"Okay okay!" Gilbert took a deep breath in "…IT! BAH HA HA! Get it? I said I'd say 'it'! BAH HA HA! I'm so awesome that I tricked you losers with my awesomeness!"

Mathias frowned and looked back at Lukas while Gilbert laughed his face off some more.

"Just say it more loud so that he gets embarrassed even badder," Lukas suggested.

Mathias smiled again and cleared his throat "Ahem-GILBERT AND ELIZABETA SITTIN' IN A TREE - **K-I-S-S-I-N-!**"

Gilbert panicked "Shut up! Don't say it so loud! People will _hear _you!"

"If you don't tell me RIGHT NOW I'm gonna scream it SO loud that EVERYBODY will hear!" Mathias threatened.

"Alright already! Just shut up and I'll tell you losers stuff!"


	5. I Can Be Both

Berwald and Tino high-fived each other as the victory animation for the ice hockey video game lit up the screen.

"Yay! We did really good, yah?"

"Yah," Berwald agreed as he switched off the game console. He turned around to find that Tino was spinning around and around in a circle and singing.

_"Jingle bell jingle bell jingle bell rock jinglebells sing and jinglebells ring..."_

Berwald was a little confused as he started spinning around too. "Isn't it a little early t' sing that?"

"Don't be silly!" Tino laughed "It's only 187 more days until Christmas! Besides I LOVE Christmas! That's why I sing Christmas songs all year long!"

"Oh...yah that makes sense, but..." Berwald was starting to feel a bit dizzy "Why are we spinning 'n circles?"

"I don't know. It just seemed like fun, whee!" Tino staggered a bit as he stopped spinning and hopped up on the living room couch "Plus I'm really really happy today!"

"Ya are?" Berwald flopped down dizzily beside him "How come?"

"Because I finally have a friend who is nice and stuff!" Tino beamed "I mean, we are friends yah? Can ya be my husband AND my friend?"

Berwald felt his stomach flutter. He _just called me 'nice and stuff'...*heart symbol*_. "Yah. I can be both."

"Alright!" they high-fived each other again as a small white poof of a puppy came scurrying into the room.

"H'llo Puppy," Berwald greeted her as she jumped up on his lap.

"Hi Egg-Flower-Bomber-Snappy-Gingerbread-Salami-Brain! " Tino smiled as he reached out for her "That's the nickname I gave her when my mom and I came over to take care of her that one week!" he explained as he scratched her behind the ears.

"...I see." Truthfully, that was about the worst name Berwald had ever heard for a dog in his life, but he liked Tino too much to risk hurting his feelings. "Ya can call her that if ya want, but I just call her Puppy."

"Yah, maybe Egg-Flower-Bomber-Snappy-Gingerbread-Salami-Brain can just be her middle name."

"...'lright then..." He wondered how many snacks it would take to get Tino to let Berwald name their children.

"So... guess what happened?"

"Hmm?"

"My parents..." Tino looked both ways and then lowered his voice to a whisper "...lied to me one time."

Berwald was taken aback. "They did?"

"Yah, they told me that they were Santa Claus!"

Berwald turned his head to the side "But...th'y can't be Santa Claus...he's just one person."

"Yah I know! But I also know for another reason. Do ya want to know it?"

Berwald nodded.

"Okay, so..." Tino took a deep breath in "Nobody believes me though..."

"I'll believe ya, I promise. I know ya wouldn't lie."

"Okay, here goes..." Tino leaned over and whispered into his ear "I'm the real Santa Claus."

Berwald eyes shot wide open "...Really?"

"Yah! It's true!"

"Th't...is amazing..." Berwald whispered with awe "But, if yer the real Santa, who is that at the mall every year?"

"He's just a fake guy who tricks people."

"He is?"

"Yah! He's an evil fake guy that tricks people!"

"That's n't nice."

"I know! He's so evil and...and then he stole all my powers and then made everybody not remember that I'm the real Santa! Except me. I'm Santa, so I still remember that I am."

Berwald's eyes narrowed as he got off the couch, walked across the room and picked up a wooden sword off the ground " 'm going t' kill the evil fake guy."

"Wait!" Tino cried as he ran over to Berwald's side "Ya can't just kill him, ya need to have a sleigh first so ya can ride on it and catch him."

"...and then kill him?"

"Yah."

"Hmm..." Berwald stared up at the ceiling as he tried to think things through "Don't have a sleigh...but we could try t' make one..."

Tino's eyes lit up "Really? Ya would really help me try to make a sleigh and then kill the evil fake guy?"

"Yah. Yer m' wife...and m' friend. 'll help ya all the time."

Tino looked up at him with sparkles in his large brown eyes "You're so nice! You're the nicest person in the whole world!"

Berwald turned raspberry-pink. Tino was...Tino was...something. Cute? No, more than cute. Tino was...Berwald didn't know the word for it.

At a loss of what to say, Berwald just kind of patted him on the head.

"Let's go make a sleigh now."

"Okay!" Tino took Berwald's hand as he followed him into was garage.

_Tino is…I don't know. I just like him._


	6. Hurts Less Bad

There was a long silence as Tino and Berwald stood staring down in the grass at their recreation of Santa's sleigh. Unfortunately, reality had proved incapable of keeping up with their imaginations.

Berwald had interpreted a sleigh as basically being a sled with wood on it, so he'd tried to recreate this effect by taping numerous twigs to a plastic toboggan. Tino had tried his best to make a reindeer team with glue, crayons and construction paper, but the sleigh just didn't seem to be very mobile.

" 'm not sure this is-" Berwald started.

"Maybe..." Tino rolled the glue stick around in his hands as he tried to think through the dilemma "...maybe I can just call the fake guy..."

"On th' phone?"

"Yah, that'll be easier..." Tino scratched his head "...with the phone to call him and...tell him a spell."

"But he's evil."

"A good-Santa spell that will make him not a fake evil guy."

Berwald looked at him with confusion "But yer powers..."

"I mean..." Tino looked down at his feet "It's okay if he's Santa instead of me as long as he's a _good_ Santa like I was. And besides," he looked up at Berwald "If I was Santa again I'd have to be in the North Pole all year. I would only see your house once at Christmas Eve but ya would be asleep so it wouldn't even do _anything_."

"Hmm..." Berwald considered this new perspective "Hadn't thought about that..."

"Yah and...I want to see ya more than just once a whole year. So that fake guy can be Santa. I just-I just like to be your friend better than being Santa."

"...Really?"

"Yah, and I like being your wife better than being Santa too."

For some reason after Tino said that Berwald flinched and put his hands on the side of his face. Tino looked at him with his head turned to the side.

"Are ya okay?"

"Yah," Berwald replied. His face looked kind of red.

"Ya don't look okay. Do those bandages on your face hurt?"

"Nh. They don't really hurt unless I smile. That's why I don't smile...but I forget, sometimes."

"Ya can't smile?"

Berwald shook his head. "Not until m' face gets better."

"How long is that?"

"Don't know."

Tino frowned. _That's sad! He can't smile even if he's happy? I don't know any magic for-wait...Yah I do!_

"Hold still, okay?"

"Huh?" Berwald froze as Tino stood on his tiptoes and placed a soft kiss on the side of the ten year old's heavily bandaged face.

The world around them melted into nothingness. The only thing Berwald was aware of was his own insanely fast heartbeat and the picture he was imagining of Tino and him standing in front of an altar.

_Tino is..._

"Do ya hurt less now?"

"Huh?" Berwald blinked and looked down at his friend.

"I asked ya if ya hurt less. If you're hurt and someone kisses your hurt spot it's supposed to make it hurt not as bad."

_Hurt...? Oh right. I forgot what we were talking about._

"Yah, it hurts less bad now." Berwald replied as he touched the bandaged side of his face "Thank ya."

"Would it help more if I kissed ya again?"

"Umm..." Berwald was blinking red like an alarm beacon. "I…"

"Here, hold still again-"

Mathias grinned as Lukas and Emil set up the stepladder for him. Gilbert had told them about this new kid and the plan to rescue Tino. This kid had a lot of nerve, whoever he was.

_I__ am the king of this neighborhood. He can't just go steal my prisoner just because he __wants__ to. Time to show him who's boss!_

Once the stepladder was set up, Mathias ascended the steps, careful not to drop any of the water balloons in his arms. When he'd reached the top, he took a look over the side of the new kid's fence and screamed.

"EWWW!" Mathias cried, dropping the water balloons as he toppled backwards and came crashing down from the stepladder.


	7. Victim of the Rules

_A grown up Berwald and a grown up Tino stood side by side in front of the altar wearing matching suits and bow ties. They were holding hands and smiling at each other while some old guy read wedding stuff from a book._

_"Do you, Berwald, take Tino to be your wife for real and not just as a pretend game?"_

_"Yah, I do."_

_"And do you, Tino, take Berwald to be your husband for real and not just as a pretend game?"_

_"Yah! I love to marry Berwald! He's super nice and stuff! I love to marry him all the time!"_

_"Okay, well that pretty much means you're married now. So now you can ki-"_

"EWWWW!"

Berwald's daydream was abruptly ended by a distant shout and the sound of a crash. Tino pulled his lips away from the side of Berwald's face as they both turned to the back fence.

"What was-?" Tino started to ask.

Berwald yanked his wooden sword off the grass and stepped in front of Tino defensively.

"Don't worry. I'll protect ya, even if I have t' die or get hurt really bad."

Tino's eyes went wide with horror. "I don't like the part about ya dying..."

"Well, I won't die unless I have t'-"

Tino latched himself onto Berwald's arm and held him back. "Please don't do this if it will make ya die!"

_Cute..._

"I-I won't-I... Look, there's less than 2% chance of m' dying."

"...what about being hurt real bad?"

"There's less than 5% chance of m' being hurt really bad."

Tino clung to Berwald all the tighter. "This makes me too worried. Let's go back inside. I hate it when ya die, that sucks!"

"...Ya don't want t' go see what that was?"

Tino shook his head "No, I get scared too easy. Can't we just go back inside, hide under a blanket together and sing Christmas songs?"

Blanket + Tino + together...Berwald had no objections to this course of action.

"'lright then." They turned around and started walking back towards the house.

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!"

_Dangit!_ Berwald thought as he saw Mathias standing on the back porch holding a water balloon in one hand. _So much for the blanket idea…_

"AIHH!" Tino screamed. "How did-? I thought ya said the yard was locked!"

"Yah…I forgot about th' front gate."

"SILENCE PEASANTS! Tino, why did you run away from your king and then gross me out by kissing this gross-looking guy which is super gross because KISSING IS GROSS?!"

Tino's eyes narrowed. "He's not gross-looking! He's nice, so go away or I'll use my Santa powers to put ya on the naughty list forever and then for a hundred more years after that!"

Mathias laughed "You're such a baby Tino. Nobody cares about your made-up Santa powers that aren't even re-uh oh…"

There was genuine abhorrence burning in Berwald's eyes as he pressed the blade of his wooden sword against Mathias's throat.

"Don't…" Berwald took a step forward with every word, causing Mathias to stumble backwards "…call…Tino…bad…names…" his back was pressed against the wall of the house now "…or else…"

Mathias was about to panic when he remembered he still had a water balloon in one hand.

"Or else what?" Mathias replied with a smirk as he smashed the water balloon onto Berwald's chest.

"NO!" Tino cried as the balloon broke open and soaked the front of his husband's shirt.

"It's only water," Berwald noted with a shrug. "I could just change m' clothes."

"No, ya don't get it…" Tino sobbed "In this game being hit by a water balloon means you're dead."

Berwald dropped his sword in surprise "…Really?"

Mathias laughed. "So much for your gross boyfriend, Tino!"

"Husband," Berwald corrected him.

"Yeah whatever, you guys are both gross freaks because I saw Tino kissing you on the cheek and that was DISGUSTING! Anyways, since you're dead now you have to come be my prisoner all day you-what's your name?"

"Berwald."

"-Berwald! My name is Mathias, just so you know. NOW COME TO MY TREEFORT!"

"Why?"

"Because you're dead and it's the rules and you have to! Now come on!" Mathias grabbed Berwald's sleeve and started dragging him away.

"WAIT!" Tino yelled as he rushed up to Berwald and threw his arms around his friend's waist. "I'm going to miss ya, my husband!"

"I'll miss ya too, m' wife," Berwald replied as Tino sadly let go and stepped back while Mathias dragged his husband out to the front gate.

"When you're alive again tomorrow do ya want to come over and build a blanket fort together?"

"Yah, that's sounds good."

"Alright! See ya tomorrow then. Goodbye Berwald!"

"Goodbye m' wife," Berwald waved as the front gate closed behind them.

**This isn't the end of the story, by the way. That would be a sucky ending. I would have to slap myself with at least ten rubber lemurs if the story ended on this note. Thank you beautiful people for all the awesome reviews! They motivate me and make me smile every time. Love all around!**


	8. Game NOT over

Tino continued waving back long after Berwald had disappeared from his sight. The eight year old sighed as he sat down in the grass of his friend's empty backyard.

Tino was free now. Berwald had succeeded in helping Tino escape, but now, because of Tino. Berwald was now Mathias's prisoner.

"This sucks," Tino concluded as he laid down on the lawn and turned to look at the clump of grass next to him. In the middle was a small white flower, no bigger than Tino's pinkie. It reminded him of a talk he'd had with his mother one time.

_"It sucks being so little when everyone around me is super strong!" Tino whined "Why am I such a shrimp?"_

_"Ya aren't a shrimp," his mother explained as she gently tucked him into the covers "You're more like a delicate flower."_

_"But flowers can't do ANYTHING. Besides, the other boys hate flowers. They think flowers are stupid."_

_"Don't worry Sweetheart," Tino's mother smiled as she patted him on the head "One day ya will meet a boy who likes flowers, and who will like ya. And besides..." she walked to the door and shut the light off "...flowers can actually do a lot of amazing things. Some can even kill people. Well, good night then!"_

_"Some can even kill people..."_

Tino sat up with a smile "I got it!"

The eight year old stood up, ran out of the yard and sprinted over to his own house next door. He quietly tiptoed up the stairs and slipped into his parents' room without a sound. Tino ducked down into the closet, switched on the light, and found what he was looking for.

Right above his father's tie rack was the mother of all super-powered paintball guns. The monstrous weapon was equipped with a sniper scope and an extra-large ammunition-barrel.

Tino slid a stool over so he could step up and snag it off the shelf.

"This game isn't over Mathias," Tino smiled as he took it in his hands "This game just barely started."


	9. Flower Power

"That was really cheap Mathias," Lukas commented when the four of them had gotten back to the treefort. "You are a cheapskate, and also, I still think you are really gross."

"Him and Tino are the gross ones! They were kissing when I saw them. That's the grossest of all."

"Kissing someone on the cheek doesn't count as _actually_ kissing them. You are so immature _all_ the time."

"You know what Lukas? Shut up I hate you. Anyways, you Berwald-guy, sit in this chair!"

"No."

"You're my prisoner, you _have_ to."

Berwald ignored this statement and sat on the floor in the corner of the treefort instead.

"Whatever, as long as you're sitting down. Now, truth or dare?"

"Neither."

"That's not a choice! Don't make me sing the song that never ends!"

"Please just play it," Emil pleaded "That song hurts my ears."

"Nh, fine. Truth."

"Alright! Okay…is it true that you…pick your nose?"

"No."

"Really? Sometimes I pick mine, but mostly that's just to annoy Lukas."

"Ech," Berwald cringed "Ya didn't need t' tell us that."

"Why not? I like telling people EVERYTHING!"

"Ya really shouldn't."

"Silence Slave! Now, is it true that you…like to put underwear on your head and dance around like WHEE!?"

"No. Who even does that?"

"I do! I double-dog dare you to put underwear on your head and run around like WHEE!"

"I didn't pick 'dare'."

"Oh, right. Can you pick 'dare' so I can dare you to do that?"

"No. Why do ya even want me t' do that?"

"Because he's gross," Lukas explained "And loves underwear."

"MY underwear has awesome cars on it that are driving across a bridge really fast. Building bridges is fun, do you like building stuff?"

"Yah. I build stuff a lot."

"REALLY? Do you want to build stuff with me sometime?"

"No. I don't want t' do anything with ya. Yer mean t' Tino."

"Oh…what if I was nice to him?"

"Yer still annoying. And bossy."

"Tell me about it," Lukas empathized.

"Hey," Mathias pointed at the bandages on Berwald's face "What are those for?"

"M' face."

Mathias rolled his eyes "Well DUH. I _know_ that. Why do you have them on your face?"

"I got hurt."

"What happens if you take them off? Is your face all bloody and gross and stuff?"

Berwald's cheeks flushed "Nh, that's not yer business."

"Oh, so it _is_ all bloody and gross and stuff. Lemme see it!" Mathias reached forward.

"Nh!" Berwald covered the side of his face with his hands and scooted farther into the corner. "Don't. Yer annoying."

"Seriously Mathias, stop that. I'm serious, that's too mean." Lukas said, trying to dissuade his friend from that course of action.

"What? I just wanna _see_ it."

"Mathias-" Lukas started.

"Is it because you're scared that Tino will find out and then think you're gross and not play with you anymore?"

"J'st shut up."

"Aha! Knew it! Ha ha ha, so that's your weakness. In that case, I'm gonna tear it off, see how gross it is, and then I'm gonna tell Tino tha-AIHH!" Matthias shrieked in pain as a green and yellow splash of paint erupted on the side of his face.

_Headshot!_ Tino smiled with satisfaction on a nearby tree branch as he watched Mathias stumble back in exaggerated agony through the sniper scope. _That's what ya get for messing with my husband, ya jerkface!_

He turned his sights on Lukas. Tino knew he would have to take out all three of them to get Berwald back, but Lukas wasn't really mean, so he shot him in the shoulder instead of the face.

"What the-?" Lukas's attention turned away from Mathias as he looked at the paint splatter on his shirt.

Now for Emil. Emil wasn't really mean either. Plus Emil was even littler than he was, so Tino just shot him in the foot.

"Huh? Ooh, pretty colors…" Emil kneeled down to get a better look at his shoe "Look Big Brother! Someone painted my foot."

"Alright Mathias!" Tino called. The four of them looked at him up through the hole in the tree house roof, all wearing expressions of disbelief and confusion "I got all of ya, so now you're out of game and ya have to give me Berwald back!"

"Oh yeah? What if I don't wanna-AIHH!" Mathias squealed as he got caught by a storm of paintball bullets "Ow! Agh! Okay okay FINE! I give up and surrender and stuff. Come on boys, let's go play something better. But I'm warning you Tino, when tomorrow comes, it will be another day!"

"It's always another day when tomorrow comes," Lukas pointed out.

"Shut up Lukas! I'm tired of you saying things."

"I'm tired of you saying things."

"Big Brother, can we go home and paint now?"

_Now __that_ Tino the eight year old delicate blossom thought with a self-contented smile as he watched the three of them walk away from the treefort _is what I call flower-power._


	10. Greatest

Berwald was in a daze as he stood up from the paint-splattered wood floor. Unless his eyes deceived him, he'd just witnessed adorable little Tino ambush his captors with a paintball sniper rifle.

_Tino is..._

_...kind of dangerous, actually._

"Berwald!" Tino appeared in the doorway, set the gun down and then came running at him with open arms and a huge smile. "I got my husband back! I got ya back! I GOT YA!"

Tino laughed as he threw his arms around Berwald and gave him the tightest hug that he could. "I'm so happy I got ya back. It sucked when they took ya, I didn't have any fun at all! Not even a little! Well, okay, shooting Mathias was kind of fun, but not as fun as being with you of course!"

_Dangerous...but also cute._

"Yer the best," Berwald noted "Ya just are."

"Ya think so?" Tino grinned as he let go "Did ya see how I shot them all and then when Mathias wouldn't surrender I shot him a bunch more times?"

"Yah, that was good. Thank ya for that, by the way."

"No problem! I always kind of wanted to do that. Shoot Mathias, I mean."

Berwald nodded "M' too. That guy is crazy."

"I know! He's crazy _all_ the time. He's mean too."

"Yah," Berwald put a hand to the side of his face, shuddering as he remembered Mathias's threat to rip the bandages off. " 'll say…"

_I hope Tino never wants to know what m' face looks like without bandages on…Please please __please__ let him never find out until it gets better. Please!_ Berwald silently pled with forces unseen.

"Hey, Berwald?" Tino had a very thoughtful expression on his face all of a sudden. "Can I ask ya something? I-I really wanna ask it…"

_Uh oh…_Berwald swallowed down nervousness. _Please please __please__ let it not be about m' face…_

"Yah, I guess ya can ask it…" Berwald reluctantly responded.

"Okay, well… It's kind of weird but…do ya..." Tino looked down at the paint-splattered floor "...like flowers?"

Whew! Better question! Berwald liked that question approximately a bazillion plus 4 times better than the one he'd been expecting.

"Hmm..." Berwald thought about it "I...do n't like flowers."

"Oh..." Tino sighed with disappointment.

"I love flowers."

Tino's head shot up. "Really?"

"Yah. Who doesn't? Flowers are great. Did ya know that some can ev'n kill people?"

Tino gasped before beaming and wrapping his arms around Berwald again. "I knew it! I knew it was ya!" He clutched the back of the Berwald's shirt with his tiny hands and pulled his friend as close to him as he possibly could "I'm so glad. This is the greatest!"

Berwald was all kinds of confused as he hugged Tino back. "What's th' greatest?"

"You are!"

"M'?"

"Yep!"

"...because I love flowers?"

"Because of a bazillion reasons."

" 'm confused…"

"That's okay," Tino replied as he pulled his arms back and took Berwald by the hand. "Here, let me take this back before Mom sees that it's gone. Then we can play some more, yah?"

"Sounds good," Berwald replied, face turning flamingo pink as their fingers intertwined.

"By the way," Tino noted as he picked the paintball gun up with his free hand "Your face-"

_Oh no. No Tino, please don't ask-_

"-turns red and pink a lot. Is that because you're blushing?"

_-oh…_

Berwald replied with nothing but redder cheeks.

"Are ya? Wow, you're even more red now. Ya kind of remind me of a shiny red Christmas ornament-no don't look away! I love shiny red ornaments! Ber-wald! Look at me, please? Aww…you're ADORABLE!"

_So glad Mathias is gone…_


	11. Giggly

After successfully returning the paintball gun without being seen, Berwald and Tino found that they were both a bit worn out from all the day's excitement. So they opted for a more low-key sitting-down game.

"G'mme a...noun"

"Umm..." Tino stopped pulling pieces of grass apart and laid back on the picnic blanket beside Berwald "How about a... Nativity Set?"

"Mmm..." Berwald carefully penciled the word in " 'lright, now I need a ...an animal."

"A puppy! Do ya need anything else?"

"J'st one more, another noun."

"Okay! Hmm...a noun..." Tino scooted closer to Berwald and rested his head on his husband's shoulder as he thought, unknowingly causing Berwald to almost drop his pencil.

"How about..." Tino yawned, closed his eyes and buried his face in Berwald's shirt "...a gingerbread man?"

"Yah, that's good. Lemme just..." Berwald's insides melted as Tino curled up closer beside him. "Write this all in..."

Berwald finished filling in the blanks and turned to see Tino staring at him with large, shiny eyes.

_Cute…_

"Are ya done now?"

"Mmm. Mm-hmm…" Berwald set his pencil down and started reading his friend the story.

_The __Jolly__ Zoo_

_Mathias-the-stupid-face__ and his family were so __yucky__ for a __millisecond__ at the zoo. They __sniped__ in their __one horse open sleigh__ to get there. __Mathias-the-stupid-face's__ dad had to buy __knock-knock jokes__ so they could get into the __Santa's workshop__._

Tino giggled and shook his head "This story makes NO sense."

_First they saw the __reindeer__ with their __snow white__snowy__ feathers. Then they saw __bullets__ swimming inside a tank full of __eggnog__._

_After that, __Mathias-the-stupid-face__ and his family __destroyed__ over to the petting zoo, where people could __backflip__ the __Angry Birds._

_"Hey, it's __kicking__ my __guts and stuff__!" __Mathias-the-stupid-face__ laughed._

_"That's because he __marries__ you," the __cuddly__ zookeeper explained._

Tino sat up and burst out laughing "HA HA HA! What? This story is SO weird!"

"Ya picked th' words for this story."

"Ha ha ha! Yah I picked the words but I didn't know ya were going to use them like this. Read more! Read more!"

_When it was time for lunch __Mathias-the-stupidface__ and his family ate __Nativity Sets__ while they watched the __puppies__ do tricks on top of the __gingerbread man__._

_"This is one __jolly__ zoo!" exclaimed __Mathias-the-stupid-face__._

There were tears of hilarity streaming down from Tino's eyes as he rolled around on the grass giggling his head off.

"And then," Tino stood up, barely able to speak through his laughter "…then the Nativity sets that they ate came alive like WHAA!" he explained, using hand motions for emphasis "So they were alive inside his stomach and then Joseph says 'I can't believe ya just ate Mary and Jesus and stuff, why would ya do something like that?'.

And then Joseph took his stick, which was actually a sniper rifle that he'd been disguising, and he shot the inside of Mathias's stomach until it EXPLODED open! And then Baby Jesus and his friends were free but Mathias's guts were everywhere like BLEGH!"

The eight year old then collapsed to the ground with laughter once more. Berwald was having a really, _really_ hard time not smiling at the moment.

"Yer silly," Berwald concluded as he closed the notebook. "Yer a silly, silly guy."

"Yah, my mom tells me that a lot," Tino confirmed as he crawled over to the edge of the blanket and started rolling himself up in it "My teacher says that too. One time I got sent to the principal's office just because I wrote an essay about Santa Claus shooting people with a grenade launcher from his sleigh."

"Ya did?" Berwald asked as he moved off the blanket so Tino could roll himself up the rest of the way.

"Yep. Weird yah? I thought it was a great essay. I even spelled all the words right." Tino had now rolled himself up entirely inside the blanket, so that only his head and feet were sticking out.

"Now ya look like a jelly roll," Berwald observed.

"Yah! I'm a jolly jelly roll!" Tino replied with a grin.

"Are ya a tasty jelly roll?"

"Of course! I'm the tastiest jelly roll in the whole – NO!" Tino laughed as Berwald pretended to take a bite out of him "NO no! Only joking! I'm actually a really yucky jelly roll! I actually taste super super gross!"

"I think ya taste _delicious_. Nom nom nom!"

"NOOO!" Tino half-screamed, half-laughed as he tried to squirm away "No, actually if ya eat me I'll be super poisonous and you'll die and stuff!"

"Nh, that's 'lright. I 'lready died earlier today. Om nom nom!"

"TI-NO!"

"Oh no…" Tino's heart sank, as every kid's does when they hear their mother call their name in distinct syllables. "Don't tell me-"

"TI-NO! Ah, there ya are! Time for ya to tell your friend good bye for the day, ya got to clean up for dinner and stuff!"

"Aw MAN!" Tino pouted as he rolled out of the blanket "Do I _have_ to? I was having fun…"

"Ya can have fun with him tomorrow after your chores are done."

Tino sighed "O-kay…" Then, as he stood up and brushed himself off, Tino got an idea.

"Hey Mom! Can Berwald spend the night at our house?"

Berwald's stomach lurched. _Oh no…no __not__ a sleepover. Please don't say y-_

"Tino, ya know ya can only have sleepovers on your birthday."

_Whew…close one._

"But that's all the way in December!"

"Tino…" his mother looked sternly at him.

Tino sighed again "Okay… o-kay. Yes Mom. Can I quick say goodbye to him, please?"

"Yah, ya can say goodbye to your friend, but come in right after!" Tino's mom stepped back into the house.

"Well," Tino smiled sadly as he turned back to Berwald "I guess I have to go for today, kind of sucks..."

"Nh," Berwald pulled his friend closer and hugged him "That's 'lright. Thanks for playing with m' today. This is th' first time I've gotten t' play with anyone in over a year."

Tino hugged him back "Thank _ya_ for rescuing me from Mathias and those guys. I thought I was going to be their prisoner forever. Ya still want to come over tomorrow and build a blanket fort together?"

"Mmm..." Berwald nodded as they let each other go "Sounds like fun."

"Okay, well I guess-no, wait! Hold on!" Tino grabbed Berwald's hand before he turned to walk away.

"Hmm?"

"Can, can I be your wife again when we play together tomorrow?"

Flocks of doves burst through the ground in the world of Berwald's imagination as sparkly confetti and paintball bullets started raining from the sky.

"Ya can be m' wife forever...if ya want t'..."

Tino gasped "REALLY? Al-RIGHT! That's the best! Thankyathankyathankya YAY!" Tino hopped up and down before hugging Berwald again. "Thank ya Husband! You're the best husband ever! You're also the nicest friend in the world. Well, good night then!"

Berwald's feet were frozen in place as Tino let go of him and ran back to his own house. He looked on longingly as his friend disappeared behind the front door.

"Good night, m' wife." Berwald whispered before picking up the picnic blanket, clutching it tight to his chest and then returning to his house.

**Readers and reviewers: thankyathankyaTHANKYA for all the support and encouragement. You all are wonderful, amazing, jolly souls. There's at least a couple more chapters after this. Love all around!**


	12. Circles Part 1

An eight year old Berwald slid his hand through a slot in the front door of the dog carrier, smiling as the fluffy white puppy within licked his fingertips and wagged her tail.

"Ya got a name f'r her yet?" his mother asked him as she peered back in the rearview mirror.

"Puppy," Berwald replied, not taking his eyes off of his newly adopted furry friend.

His parents glanced at each other for a brief second and smiled.

"…Yer just gonna call her 'Puppy'?" Berwald's other mom asked.

"Yah, that's what she is, so 'll call her that."

"Ya don't want t' call her…something maybe more…different?"

"Why would I? I call ya both 'Mom' 'cause that's what ya are, so 'll call her 'Puppy' because that's what she is."

His parents glanced at each other again before shrugging and turning back to the road. That was sound enough logic from their standpoint.

A minute later, opposing traffic vanished and Mrs. Oxenstierna noticed a long string of cars backed up behind something. As they came closer it became apparent that the traffic was being stopped by a monstrous pickup truck with only one wheel on the pavement and three wheels in the ditch adjacent to the road.

"What the-?"

Instead of stopping, the pickup truck was swerving wildly around, sending mud and clumps of grass flying up into the air as it tried to get back up onto the pavement.

"Nh, weird. Just keep driving past it like ya normally wo-OH M' GOD-!"

Eight year old Berwald had been so captivated by the little puppy in the pet carrier that he didn't realize anything was wrong in the outside world until the monstrous pickup truck suddenly rocketed out of the ditch, shot across the street and slammed into the Oxenstierna's family car. He didn't see the collision, but he felt the impact and the ensuing shock as the vehicle he was in rolled over multiple times before crashing at the bottom of the ditch.

"BERWALD!" His mother's voice sounded like a distant echo in his head before the pickup truck toppled over into the gully and fell right on top of them.

The rest of the scene was a discordant, fragmented blur colored by the smell of smoke, the taste of blood, the sound of women screaming and sirens wailing.

"Puppy…" Berwald reached out with his one free hand and undid the latch on the pet carrier.

"Shh…it's 'lright Puppy. Don't cry…" He tucked the frightened little animal under his arm and slowly started to pull them both out of the wreckage, trying to follow the sound of his parents' voices.

"BERWALD! BERWAL-oh m' God, FIRE! Fi-"

The eight year old didn't know what was going on as the engine caught aflame. He just turned, saw a rapidly growing fireball headed right at them and threw himself between it and the little white ball of fluff.

Then, there was nothing. For a while…

Then there were fragmented snippets of audio that to the eight year old's mind didn't really make a whole lot of sense.

"…fractured ribs and the…"

"…second and third degree burns…"

"…likely need glasses from now on…"

"…on his arm and torso will heal entirely, but his face isn't-"

"…oh m' God. M' son! Berwald! Oh God!"

"Mrs. Oxenstierna, we're going to need you to return to your own bed now. You're not presently in condition to-"

"AIHH!"

…

"…vital signs seem to be stabilizing…"

"…the other driver was apparently drunk and had a past record of-"

"…really a miracle that all three of them survived."

"…that poor child…"

"Arf!"

"…Puppy?"

That was the first word Berwald remembered saying as his eyes opened to a fuzzy image of a hospital room.

"Eh? Yay! Look Ludwig! It worked! The little kid is finally awake, I told you there was a magic bond between a boy and his dog."

"I still think your real motivation was that you wanted to have a cute pet in your workplace. No matter, I am glad it worked. Just make sure it doesn't slobber on the bandages or anything."

"O-kay!"

Berwald was confused about many things upon waking up. Why were there a bazillion wires stuck to him? Why was the room blurry? Where was he even?

His mind was put mostly at ease when a fluffy white form scurried over from the foot of the bed, licked his face and curled up by his shoulder.

"H'llo Puppy…" With great effort Berwald lifted up a hand and scratched the small dog behind the ears. A red-haired blurry figure came and sat down beside him.

"Hi Kid! I'm so glad you're awake. Do you want lunch? I can make all kinds of pasta!"

"Yer too fuzzy," Berwald replied "Why is everything fuzzy? Where are m' moms?"

"Oh don't worry about them. They've both been juiced to the gills with pain medication, they're feeling great! At least they will until the effects wear off. Speaking of which, Dr. Ludwig told me that I could give you your dose now. Isn't that nice?"

"What does that ev'n me-?"

…

Mrs. Oxenstierna leaned against her IV stand as she looked with tear-filled eyes at what was left of Berwald. She turned away from the hospital bed to face Dr. Ludwig.

"Who was th' other driver?"

Dr. Ludwig coughed "I do not have the authority to divulge that information-"

"Who were they? I know they were intoxicated. Who were they? Whose carelessness left m' son scarred like this?"

Dr. Ludwig said nothing.

"They're here, aren't they? At this hospital, I know by th' look on yer face that they are. Who was it, Doctor?"

Dr. Ludwig started writing something on his clipboard, but remained silent.

"Doctor-"

"As I said before, I do not have the authority to divulge that kind of information. I will send in Nurse Vargas to escort you back to your room."

He turned and walked out the door, but not before tearing something off of his clipboard and silently slipping a piece of paper into Mrs. Oxenstierna's hands. On the piece of paper was a name, a room number, and the time that night when there would be a "mysterious system failure" in the hospital's video monitoring system.

…

Mr. Nuruo Nuruyama had arrived at the hospital with sky-high alcohol levels and a punctured lung, the latter condition caused by a car accident that the patient himself was responsible for. Even though he was not yet able to breathe on his own at the time of his last check-up, it was expected that he would make a full recovery.

Or rather, would have made a full recovery, had his oxygen tube not been pulled out. Hospital security had been experiencing issues with their camera system that night, so no video recording of the patient's room at his calculated time of death was available. A brief investigation left authorities with the conclusion that the cause of his death had been oxygen deprivation and that the removal of the breathing tube was completely accidental.

**Umm...last chapter I said there would only be a couple chapters more but as this has all been turning out to be a lot longer than I expected. So...I guess there will be two more chapters after this one, which is good, because it'll take a good couple of chapters to return from my RANDOMLY SUPER DARK MOOD WHIPLASH, which ****ALWAYS HAPPENS****, by ACCIDENT, ****EVERY TIME****!**

**Gah...sorry about that guys. Apparently I have some ****serious issues**** that I didn't even know about. Also, it seems some subconscious part of me hates the random little cafe customer guy and wants to make him evil all the time. Doesn't really make much sense...**

**Kay yeah, but the next chapter is mostly happy. Or at least it ****should**** be if it goes the way I planned it to...**

**...STAY AWAY, thou dark mental infestation of angst that makes me write melodramatic junk in the middle of a fluff story! STAY BACK!**

**Anyways, peace out. Love all you guys. Love all around.**


	13. Circles Part 2

Mrs. Oxenstierna pushed a stack of moving boxes to the side and opened the front door to find a rosy-cheeked, blonde-haired boy with a Santa hat on his head standing on their doorstep. A nervous little woman who looked like the child's mother stood a few steps behind him.

"H'llo there-"

"Hi!" the small boy smiled and held up a plate of slightly malformed cookies "I'm Tino! I live right next door to ya! Ya looked sad when I saw ya carrying boxes inside earlier, so I made ya these to give ya some Holiday cheer! Also, did ya know I'm actually the real Santa Claus?"

_Cute..._

"Thank ya Santa," Mrs. Oxenstierna replied as she knelt down and took the plate from the cheerful child "We did need some holiday cheer, thank ya for that."

"You're welcome! Also, do ya have any kids my age?"

Tino's mother hid her face behind her hand "Tino, ya don't just-"

Mrs. Oxenstierna smiled "Yah, we have a son. He's just a little older than ya are."

Tino's face lit up even brighter "Really? Can he please play with me?"

Mrs. Oxenstierna shifted around uncomfortably, unsure of how to explain the unsettling situation to the innocent child in front of her.

" 'm sure he'd love t' play…once he feels better, that is."

Tino frowned "Feels better? Is he sick with something?"

"TINO! I'm sorry Miss. Tino, that's not your business to ask-"

"Nh," Mrs. Oxenstierna waved it off "It's 'lright. He's not sick with anything, but he was hurt very badly when we got into a car accident a while ago."

Tino gasped and covered his mouth with his hands "Is-is he going to be okay?" He looked like he was about to cry.

_Poor tender heart… _

"Yah, he's getting better. Yer a sweet kid Tino, 'm sure our boy will want t' play with ya once he feels well enough."

"Oh…" Tino's head turned to the side, as if he was thinking very hard about something. Then the gloom fled from his face. "Hold on! I got it! I'll be right back, it'll be real quick."

Without offering further explanation, Tino took off across the yard and ran back into his own house, leaving his mother standing alone on the doorstep with Mrs. Oxenstierna.

"Umm…" Tino's mom was nail-polish-pink with embarrassment "Ha ha ha, yah…Sorry about my son. He's a little…different. I hope he didn't offend ya at all. He wanted to bring ya a treat when he saw ya moving in today. Tino made those by himself though, so they may be a little, um…interesting…"

"Nh, don't be sorry. Ya have a sweet son."

"Ha, well thanks. He means well at least. Ah, but…it must be difficult for ya to move to a new house when ya have an injured child to care for. Is there something we can do to help ya at all?"

Mrs. Oxenstierna shook her head "We'll be 'lright, thank ya though. Kind of ya t' offer."

"Nh! Next week Honey, th' dog!" the other Mrs. Oxenstierna called from back in the house.

"Oh…that one. Well, if ya really didn't mind helpin' out…we could use a dog sitter next week. We're going out of town t' take our son t' a specialized surgeon…"

"Yah! We could absolutely help ya with that."

"Really? We'd pay ya for yer trouble-"

"What?! No, it wouldn't be trouble at all I promise ya. Tino has wanted a dog his entire life…and a brother, but he's not getting either. Ha ha! No, trust me, it'd be a treat for him to take care of a dog for a week."

Mrs. Oxenstierna looked at her with gratitude. "Thank ya. We appreciate it a lot. If ya won't let us pay ya we'll have t' make ya a cake when we get back then. Also, I didn't catch yer name-"

"Tina, Tina Vainamainen," she smiled as they shook hands "And I'll never turn down a cake, especially if it's a homemade one."

"Okay okay I'm back! I'm coming back!" Tino came running back up to the Oxenstiernas' doorstep. "Here-" he handed Mrs. Oxenstierna a piece of white printer paper. On it was scrawled the words "Feel better soon! Love, Tino", framed by a border of crayon-scribble flowers.

"It's a get well card! Could ya give it to your son for me please? And could ya tell him it's from Tino? And to please be my friend and play with me as soon as he feels well enough to?"

Unbeknownst to those on the doorstep, Berwald, who had been drawn with curiosity out of his room by the sound of unfamiliar voices, had been listening to most of the conversation from behind a stack of empty cardboard boxes.

"Tino…" Berwald whispered, holding a bandage-covered hand to his heart. Like a signal-flare shooting out across a tar-black ocean, Tino had become the light in a life that had been painted with darkness, worry and pain ever since the car accident.

One might even go as far as to say that Berwald had just fallen in love with the sweet little boy that'd been on his doorstep moments ago…a boy to whom Berwald had never spoken and who didn't even know Berwald's name. However, whether or not such young children are capable of truly 'falling in love' is widely debated, thus it will be up to every reader to judge for themselves what exactly they believe young Berwald was feeling.

Now, concerning the get-well-card Tino had made, you're probably expecting to hear that Berwald kept it close by him at all possible times and that he still has it to this very day. I wish I could tell you such a story, Berwald certainly was planning on keeping it that way.

However, as fate would have it, a nurse in the surgery recovery ward accidentally mistook the paper for trash and threw it away while Berwald was asleep. He cried for hours after he woke up and found out that it'd been lost. But the name that'd been scrawled at the note's end, Tino, echoed through his brain constantly, and no force could take that from him, for it was figuratively carved into Berwald's heart.

Months and months later, on the second day after Berwald had been told by the doctor that it was okay for him to play outside again, Mrs. Oxenstierna looked up from her newspaper and raised an eyebrow.

"What are ya up t'?" Berwald's mother asked as she watched her son carry a cardboard box and a bag of Swedish Fish to the front door.

"Going t' rescue m' wife," Berwald explained.

"Yer wife? Didn't know ya were married. Whose yer wife?"

"Tino."

"Tino? From next door? I didn't know ya had even gotten t' meet him yet."

"I haven't," Berwald replied as he placed a plastic Viking helmet on his head "That's why I want t' rescue him, so I can meet him. See ya Mom."

Mrs. Oxenstierna saw the door close behind her ten year old son and then shrugged.

" 'lright then," she turned back to her newspaper "Sounds reasonable enough t' me."

**Huzzah for returning to a light mood! One more chapter after this one, and it will be happy fluffs from smiley land, I promises. : )**


	14. Windows

Berwald scratched his head as he stared down at the eraser-smudged piece of notebook paper on his desk. He'd been trying to write an acrostic poem for Tino, but he'd only gotten 3 out of 4 letters of his wife's name done so far.

Terrific

Ice Cream

Nice

_Not too sure the "I" one is much good. Tino __likes__ ice cream, but he __isn't__ ice cream. The poem is supposed t' be about things that ya __are__. Maybe...interesting? Yah, that works. Tino is the most interesting person ever!_

Berwald erased "ice cream" and wrote in "interesting" in its place. The notebook paper didn't look very attractive at this point, but that was alright. It was just a rough draft. The final draft would go on the back of a picture Berwald had drawn of his friend riding on a sleigh while shooting a paintball gun at a "naughty elf" who looked a lot like Mathias.

_Now I just need one for "O"..._

"What's a good "O" word, Puppy?"

"Arf!" the white floof of fur on his lap replied.

Berwald frowned "That doesn't ev'n start with 'O'. Yer spelling is off Puppy, ya need t' get t' sleep."

The ten year old gently lifted the dog up into his arms and carried her over to his bed. He set Puppy down on the side of his pillow and pulled the blanket over her, leaving only the dog's fluffy white head poking out.

"Nh. There ya go. Get t' sleep so ya can spell better when ya wake up," Berwald gave her a goodnight kiss on the forehead and walked over to his bathroom sink.

He flipped the light on and looked at his reflection in the mirror. The bandages were off now that it was nighttime, so the large section of scar tissue and burn marks on the side of his face was clearly visible under a thin, shiny layer of ointment.

_Please get better before December..._ Berwald thought as he looked at the small pink patches of new skin starting to grow over his wounds. _Please. I'd really REALLY love to go to Tino's birthday sleepover, but I can't go if I still look gross like this at nighttime. Please get better, pretty pretty please?_

Berwald flipped the light off and walked back over to his desk.

_O words...Ostrich? No, that doesn't have anything to do with Tino, plus that makes no sense. What about...'okay'? No, Tino is WAY better than just 'okay'. What about-?_

*THWACK*

A thwacking sound turned Berwald's attention towards the far corner of his room where the window was. No further noise came from that direction, so Berwald shrugged and turned back to his poem.

_O words...my last name starts with "O". But Tino doesn't have the same last name as I do because we're not married for real yet. Why can't the last letter of his name be "S", that way I could write "sniper rifle"-?_

*THWACK*

Berwald stood up from his desk chair and walked over to the far corner of his room. He pushed back the curtains, undid the window latch and started to pull the glass up. Just as he finished opening the window all the way, something bounced off the top of his head and landed on the floor of his room with a squeak.

"Huh?" Berwald looked down to see a squeaky-toy shaped like a bright red "Angry Bird" character.

_What in the world?_

"Oh no I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hit ya in the head. Please don't be mad at me!"

Berwald's head shot up. There, less than a meter away, was Tino, looking out from his own bedroom window, face turning cherry-red as he covered his hand with his mouth.

"T-Tino?"

"I'm sorry Berwald!" the eight year old started to step back from the window, looking like he was on the verge of tears "I just wanted to see if ya were inside. I just wanted to talk to ya, please don't be mad."

"Tino wait! Please come back, 'm not mad."

Tino sniffled as he approached the window again "Are ya sure? Did I wake ya up?"

"No, I was 'lready awake."

"Really?"

"Yah, even if I wasn't I wouldn't be mad at ya. Yer m' wife."

"I don't know…" Tino put his hands on the windowsill and poked his face out "Mom is Dad's wife, but I think he might be at least a little mad if she woke him up by throwing squeaky birds at him," Tino started to giggle "That sounds funny. I don't think grown ups would even do that."

Berwald had to suppress a smile as Tino broke into a giggling fit.

_Cute…_

"Yer silly. How did ya find out about this ev'n?"

"About what? Oh, our windows being like this? I just guessed it since ya live next door."

"Hmm…" Berwald nodded and then looked down at the fence and the small strip of grass between their homes "That makes sense. Our houses are _really_ close together."

"Yah," Tino agreed as he looked down too "It's pretty cool-hey!" His head shot up "I bet we're close enough to hold hands even! Here, reach out!" Tino stretched his hands out toward him.

Berwald's insides went all slushy as their fingers laced together. Tino looked like an angel, with the yellow glow of light from his bedroom encircling him like a halo. He smiled at Berwald, looking all too adorable as his brown eyes reflected the glow of a nearby lamp post and the night breeze gently blew through his blonde hair.

"Yer…beautiful…"

"Um, actually I'm a boy. Don't ya mean 'handsome'?"

"Yah, that's what I meant. Yer handsome, m' wife."

"Hee hee, thank ya! You're really handsome too, I can see your pretty blue eyes a lot better when ya don't have all those bandages on."

Berwald gasped as he let go of Tino's hands and covered his face. _Oh no. No, I forgot! He wasn't supposed to see-_

"Hey! Why did ya let go? Hold hands with me! Please?"

Berwald's head was spinning with confusion and his heart was pounding as he uncovered his face and joined hands with Tino once more.

_But, he-he said I was…handsome? He doesn't think I'm…gross-looking?_

"Yay! We're holding hands again!" Tino beamed "Hey, when we get married for real, can we have everything at the wedding be Christmas stuff?"

_And he __still__ wants to be married to me? How is-?_

"Yah, that sounds good," Berwald couldn't believe it, Tino knew what he looked like and he still liked him! But this must mean… Berwald's eyes widened. He knew what the "O" word was now.

_Tino is m'-_

"Really! That would be the best, I love Christmas. Oh, can I bring a paintball gun to shoot Mathias with in case he sneaks in?"

Berwald nodded, too happy that Tino was talking about them being married for real to really think through what he was agreeing to.

"Cool! Can ya be the one who wears a wedding dress instead of me?"

"Whatever ya want, m' wife."

That was probably going to have interesting repercussions years from now.

"Yay! I think ya would look really cute in a wedding dress."

_Tino just called me 'cute'. *heart symbol*_

" 'm so glad yer m' wife," Berwald sighed dreamily.

"Me too!"

"TI-NO! Who are ya talking to?"

"Eeek!" Tino flinched "Gotta go. NOBODY MOM! See ya tomorrow, okay?"

Berwald nodded and gave Tino's hands a gentle squeeze before releasing them and watching his wife disappear behind the bedroom curtains.

He let out another dreamy sigh before pulling himself back inside and closing the window glass behind him.

Berwald then walked back to his desk, picked up a bright blue marker and carefully wrote down the final draft of his acrostic.

Terrific

Interesting

Nice

One true love, forever...

**Ta da! Thanks for reading everybody! And a special thanks to my nifty reviewers. Please leave a final review if you feel so inclined, I really do pay close attention to the feedback. Peace out and love all around!**


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